Islamic Personalities

Bani Umer

Their messages resonate in the subcontinent, particularly Pakistan, but far beyond it. Iqbal’s poems are regarded as the eternal gift to humans of the world and his importance as a Muslim thinker is rising. Iqbal has a partial relevance even in India. On the other hand Maududi has been re-discovered by Western academia along with Sayyid Qutb and Hassan al-Banna. Presently, he is seen as a pan-Islamic thinker whose influence has gone beyond the geographical confines of the subcontinent.

Maulana Maududi also challenged contemporary ideas of Secularism, Socialism and Capitalism. He supported what he called “Islamisation from above “through an Islamic state in which sovereignty would be exercised in the name of Allah and Islamic law would be implemented....

Dr Amineh Hoti

Dr Amineh Hoti

Looking around at her home, she said, “I was reflecting on the story of Moses the other day and when I heard that God granted his people, after he saved them from Pharaoh, Mano Salwa, I thought that Mano Salwa is a symbol of all of God’s blessings — the food, the clothes, the knowledge and so forth. We must see and acknowledge and be grateful with a humble heart. I have learnt that nothing is about me, my children and family — it is about humanity.”….

Dr Muhammad Maroof Shah

For Iqbal the sectarian debate on Fiqh schools, on illegitimacy of Sufism, prevalence of negative attitude to the world, to reason, to science in the name of Islam/Sufism, fossilization of Madrasa curriculum, reluctance for absolute Ijtihad, suspicion of egalitarian democratic spirit are all legacies of imperialism, Western and others. Education in the sense Iqbal conceived it is almost absent today in Indian subcontinent, both in religious and secular schools. What the poets conceived and built in his dream has been ruined by the politician as he himself had feared....

Reema Shaukat

Reema Shaukat

The depth of love, affection and respect among the Turkish people and leadership for Muhammad Iqbal is visible today because of his immense services for Islam and contribution to Turkish causes including during the Balkan wars and Turkey’s War of Independence. It was quite a moment of pride with nostalgia that we as a nation are so blessed that Allama Iqbal was our visionary leader, whose wisdom, poetry and foresightedness is still a vigil for us after many decades….

Mahir Ali

Mahir Ali

Among those keeping a keen eye on the Soviet experiment was Allama Muhammad Iqbal. I am reminded in this context of the Pakistani journalist with the pen name Meem Sheen, a devotee of Iqbal, who insisted that communism plus God essentially summed up the sub-continental poet’s philosophy….

Salman Hameed

Salman Hameed

It is in this
context that we can look at Sir Syed’s approach to science and religion. One of
the foundational principles he laid out for his Tafsir stated that,
“nothing in the Quran contradicts the law of nature”. For him, the “Work of
God” cannot contradict the “Word of God” (Sir Syed used these English words in
his Urdu Tafsir). Any contradiction is apparent, according to him, and
he provides a detailed framework for interpreting the Quran in any such
circumstances. For example, he blamed the adoption of Greek astronomy into the
commentaries of the Quran for the resulting Islamic opposition...

Raza Naeem

Raza Naeem

There were lots
of objections against Sir Syed. It was said of him that he was an Anglophile
and that his attitude in response to Western thought was merely apologetic.
These objections still persist even today. The objections were of two types.
Firstly from the fundamentalists there were Fatwas of him being infidel and so
on. Secondly, the nationalists called him a lackey of the British: that in his
passion for the adoption of new thoughts and visions, he had become a great
ally and propagandist of the British government; and had come to appear as an
Anglophile to an extreme degree in order to pave the way for British strategy
and decision-making....

Yasmin Saikia and M Raisur Rahman

Yasmin Saikia

Anecdotes point
against the narrow understanding of Sir Syed whose liberality and
cosmopolitanism warrant a deeper look to rethink and appreciate his
contribution and relevance in our times, as India embarks on the path of
joining the community of developed nations. Sir Syed is one the 19th century
leaders who paved the way for this transformation of India into an enlightened
member of the global human community....

Faizan Mustafa

Faizan Mustafa

“This man (Sir
Syed) is erring and causes people to err. He is rather an agent of the devil
and wants to mislead Muslims. It is a sin to support the college. May God damn
the founder! And if this college (MAO College which in 1920 was converted into
Aligarh Muslim University) has been founded, it must be demolished and its
founder and his supporters thrown out of the fold of Islam,” declared the Imam
of Mecca in his fatwa against Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. On the 200th birth
anniversary of this great educationist and social reformer, particularly in the
context of the current wave of aggressive nationalism, an effort should be made
to understand his vision of India....

Raza Naeem

.... Mirza
Ghalib essentially asks him such questions: “What worth is there in these
ancient texts? Why are you engaged in worshipping the past and nourishing the
dead? Come out of it and see the variety of amazing scientific inventions the
savants of the West have pioneered like the ship, the electric wire, the
matchstick, steam-powered machines and even greater than these a code, a law
and a system!”....

Dr Shenila Khoja-Moolji

Bibi Zainab’s
(RA) sermon also highlights the gendered nature of violence as she narrates the
ways in which Yazid and his armies humiliated the women of the Prophet’s (pbuh)
family:

“O progeny of
the freedman of the Prophet (pbuh)! Is this your justice? Your daughters, your
slave girls, your dear women are all sitting behind the curtain and the
daughters of the Prophet (pbuh), in shackles, unveiled, stand before you. Your
men take us from town to town where all sorts of people, whether they be
residents of the hills or of riversides have been looking at us.”....

Qasim A. Moini

Qasim A. Moini

Requesting Imam
Hussain to let him fetch water, he fought his way to the banks of the
Euphrates, and despite the scorching heat of the Iraqi desert and the toll the
battle had taken on him, he refused to drink until the women and children were
satiated. However, as he was returning to the Hussaini camp, Hazrat Abbas was
ambushed by the Syrians, who were under orders to prevent water from reaching
Imam Hussain. The enemy cut off both his hands, and upon finding Hazrat Abbas
wounded Imam Hussain is quoted to have said, “My spine is broken”.....

Farahnaz Zahidi

Farahnaz Zahidi

There are many
versions of the legendary first encounter between Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi and
his spiritual mentor Shams of Tabriz. Most describe the moment as Rumi, the
religious scholar, sitting by a pond, immersed in his scholarly reading, when
Shams, a stranger to him, comes by and asks him what he is doing. “You will not
understand,” Rumi is reported to have replied, upon which Shams throws all of
Rumi's books in the pond. But the books spring back up dry, defying the laws of
physics. At this point, Shams is reported to have said, “But you do not
understand.” This was the moment, then,
when Rumi began fathoming Allah not just with the mind but also with the
heart....

Dr Syed Areeb Uddin

Dr Syed Areeb Uddin

Same were the
circumstances at the time when the Imam thought to raise voice against it and
blessed history with the example that it’s better to die of dignity rather than
living in suppression. They were just a hundred people in front of the Lakhs of
armed men sent by Yazid yet Imam defended his viewpoint and maintained the
dignity of his view that was backed up by several others who requested him to
come to Kufa....

Rana Safvi

Rana Safvi

In a world that
is becoming more and more materialistic and aspirational by the day, material
desires are mounting and the inability to realise them leads to frustration. Do
people flock to Dargahs, ashrams and even retreats seeking the fulfilment of
desires, or does Sufism offer something more? As someone who does visit
Dargahs, I would like to examine the relevance of Sufism in our time....

Dr A Q Khan

Dr A Q Khan

Hazrat Umar
(RA) once again had tears in his eyes. He turned towards the graves of our Holy
Prophet (pbuh) and Hazrat Abu Bakr (RA), the first caliph, and said: “O
Almighty, before I am tempted into luxury, please take my life and allow me to
be with these two honourable colleagues. O Almighty, please do not embarrass me
in front of these two worthy colleagues”....

Tahir Iqbal

Ashraf Ali
Thanvi re-established the connection between Shariah and Tariqah and made
Tatbeeq (reconciliation) between various subtle issues of mysticism and the
sacred text. He considers Abdiyat as the final stage of mystical path. A
novice, according to him, should struggle to attain this final stage. The
cornerstone of his mystical ideology is the formation of God-conscious
personalities. He used to say, “If you want to be saint, Qutb, Ghaus, go
somewhere else; if you want to be a human being come here”. He believed that
the one who causes pain to any human heart could not attain spiritual
experience....

Shounaz Meky

The purity and
humbleness of Fatima placed her among the world’s best of women, as per a
saying for the prophet, which narrates as: “The best women in the entire world
are four: the Virgin Mary, Aasiya the wife of Pharaoh, Khadijah Mother of the
Believers, and Fatimah daughter of Mohammed.”....

Tahir Iqbal

As part of his
endeavours towards the purification of Islam, Ahmad Sirhindi vehemently
rejected Ibn Al-Arabi’s ontological expositions and ‘Wahdat-ul-Wajood’
and promoted the Qur’anic doctrine of Tawheed. He stated that God is far
and far above the grasp of our faculty of reason and ‘Kashf’. “Allah is
beyond the beyond, and again beyond the beyond. Neither His being nor His
attributes are directly knowable.”...

Sadia Dehlvi

Sadia Dehlvi

Having said
that Nuri lost his senses and overpowered with yearning for God, he walked into
the freshly harvested reed beds. The reeds pierced Nuri’s feet and with every
drop of blood that fell, the word Allah appeared. Unconscious of the pain, Nuri
bled profusely. Some fellow Sufis bought Nuri to his home and realising he had
little time, asked him to recite the declaration of Islamic faith, “Say, there
is no god but God…”“Why, I am on my way there,” he replied. And thereupon he
died....

Dr Muhammad Maroof Shah

Allama Anwar Shah (Allama is now a day s applied to street scholars –
Ilm being taken from inferior minds is according to a Hadees, a symptom of
approaching Doomsday) had second thoughts regarding his life work spent in
defending Fiqh of a certain kind – his enormous resources could perhaps have
been better spent in developing Muslim philosophy, especially Sadrean and
Iqbalian streaks, with both of which he shared much. ....

Moin Qazi, New Age Islam

Moin Qazi, New Age Islam

The second caliph in Islamic history, Umar Farouq remains a shining
comet of piety .He led a very austere life. On several occasions’ foreign
envoys and messengers deputed to Umar by their rulers and generals found him
resting under a palm tree or praying in the mosque with common people. It was
impossible to distinguish the Caliph from the general crowd. Such was the
simplicity and earthiness of Umar….

Ghulam Ghaus Siddiqi, New Age Islam

Ghulam Ghaus Siddiqi, New Age Islam

“Prophet Muhammad (peace be
upon him) spread awareness concerning character and manner towards one’s
parents, relatives, friends, family, humanity, animals, plants and other
inanimate objects in a full fledge manner. It is impossible for the human mind
alone to grasp all of that teaching or to come up with similar ideologies and
ideas”....

Moin Qazi, New Age Islam

Moin Qazi, New Age Islam

The second caliph in Islamic history, Umar Farouq remains a shining
comet of piety .He led a very austere life. On several occasions’ foreign
envoys and messengers deputed to Umar by their rulers and generals found him
resting under a palm tree or praying in the mosque with common people. It was
impossible to distinguish the Caliph from the general crowd. Such was the
simplicity and earthiness of Umar....